Candidate booted from ballot means all voters now have say in Lake sheriff race

11:52 p.m. EST, June 15, 2012|

By Eloísa Ruano González, Orlando Sentinel

TAVARES — The sheriff's race was blown wide open this week after a candidate running with no party affiliation was disqualified.

Mark Thompson, 56, hoped to challenge in November the winner of the GOP primary, which pits incumbent Gary Borders against law-enforcement veteran Sandy Carpenter. Had that happened, only Republicans could have voted in the Aug. 14 primary.

However, now that Thompson is out of the race — coupled with the absence of a Democrat or any other candidate on the ballot — the primary election will be opened to all voters in the county regardless of party affiliation. Borders and Carpenter now will have to reach out to all 195,000 registered Lake voters rather than just the 87,000 Republicans.

Thompson, who was unable to obtain enough voter signatures to get on the ballot without a fee, needed to write a $5,534.56 check drawn from a campaign account to qualify as required by state election laws. But he handed election officials a personal check on June 4. The staff was required to take the check, said Jerry Foster, assistant supervisor of elections. However, he said he notified Thompson he had to drop off a check from his campaign account to qualify. "But he didn't come back before the [June 8] deadline," Foster said.

Still, Thompson was listed last week as a qualified candidate. Thompson was removed earlier this week after Foster said he discovered a proper check had not been submitted.

Thompson, a self-proclaimed Ron Paul fanatic, said he was surprised to learn he won't be on the ballot, although he acknowledged he failed to turn in the correct check.

"I didn't dream of not winning the election," said Thompson, who described himself as a former truck driver who has spent time in Colorado panning for gold.

"I'm just a one-man campaign" he said. "Just because I didn't cross a 't' doesn't mean I couldn't have done the job."